- cctalk - classiccmp.org

VCF this weekend, any one up for a trade?

by Sellam Abraham

I'm sure there are at least a couple of you who will be attending the VCF this weekend in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum. Is there anything that anyone might want/need? Please send me a private message if you're looking for something and if I have what you want I can bring it with me. I'll only be there Saturday. Sellam

2 years

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ROM data for Lear Siegler ADM31?

by John Robertson

I sold my Lear Siegler ADM31 recently and the new owner (Ian) has found that one of the ROMs failed before he could archive it - or it was defective to start with. So my question to the list is - does anyone have the ROM codes (there are three of them) archived? I don't think Ian is a member of this list, otherwise I'm sure I would have spotted a post with a subject line like mine... Thanks! John :-#)# -- John's Jukes Ltd. 7 - 3979 Marine Way, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5J 5E3 Call (604)872-5757 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games) flippers.com "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out"

2 years

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Re: Apple 1

by Sellam Abraham

On Sat, Aug 5, 2023, 9:48 AM Joshua Rice via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > The Apple 1 is collectible purely because it was the first product Apple > made. Not really, though that's part of it. The value of the Apple 1 has more to do with the Cult of Steve than anything else. Steve Jobs became the most celebrated CEO of his time. He was practically a rockstar. Personally, I think the admiration for Jobs turned into cringey idol worship, but the fact is millions of people around the world were impacted by the products Apple produced under his leadership, and he received the adoration. As I said previously, the Apple 1 is now an icon, a status symbol for the wealthy. The "Veblen Good" concept absolutely applies here. They have transcended our motley little community of vintage computer enthusiasts. They will continue to be held in high end collections for generations to come. Sellam

2 years

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Re: Apple 1

by Chuck Guzis

On 8/3/23 00:45, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote: > Value is a very much reliant on both desirability and historical significance. I guarantee most people who own an Apple 1 never use it, and it sits in a cabinet/shelf somewhere. Transversely, I’m sure there’s very few Amiga 1200’s purely on display, with the vast majority in collectors hands either tucked in a cupboard or actively used. > > The Apple 1 is collectible purely because it was the first product Apple made. There’s dozens of similar machines from the same time period, vcreated by startups looking to be the next big thing, that just didn’t make it. Look at SWTPC, look at IMSAI, the COSMAC ELF. Apple made it to the big time, and they didn’t, so many more people with too much money would consider the Apple 1 to be a wise investment. > > I’d still prefer the IMSAI 8080 or SWTPC 6800 though. Collection values are so subjective that to me, that they make little sense. For example, is a Mac that belonged to Steve Jobs more valuable than the same model Mac that belonged to Harvey Schmidlap? Same machine--I doubt that any scientific test could affirm that Jobs was still alive in the former. But the difference to collectors may be a couple orders of magnitude. But then, I see little difference in value between an original painting and an expert copy. Yes, I know, I have no soul! --Chuck

2 years

2
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IBM 1410 FPGA Status - 1401 Mode

by Jay Jaeger

My IBM 1410 FPGA project now features a working 1401 mode as well, with the flip of a switch, exactly like the original IBM 1410. There are still a few real problems (e.g., Console I/O Input under program control doesn't seem to be working), a few minor issues involving console problems when doing control operations, and lots of changes I want to make to the PC console support program, which really should be done before tackling I/O devices. There are posts relating to the debugging of the 1401 side of things towards the end of the list that appears on page: https://www.computercollection.net/index.php/ibm-1410-fpga-implementation/ JRJ

2 years

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Houston Instruments HiPlot Plotters - Pens?

by Gordon Henderson

I have a HiPlot plotter - it's DMP-29, but I'm fairly sure it takes the same pens as the DMP-2 which I also have but in a million pieces - but right now without pens. I have been promised some but it may be many weeks... I'm wondering if anyone has any old (or NOS?) pens for them? What I'm after is the dimensions with a view to 3D printing new pens - or at least pen holders so I can fit modern pens into. (There is no height restriction on the pen bodys) Can anyone help? (I'm in the UK if anyone has any physical pens available - please let me know) Thanks, Gordon

2 years

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Looking for the MAD-1 drive unit

by brad＠techtimetraveller.com

I have 3 of the 4 pieces of Modular Advanced Design's MAD-1 and every now and again I like to reach out and see if anyone might have the last missing piece I need. The MAD-1 is sort of like the evil twin of the Mindset.. although nowhere near the graphics prowess. Unfortunately like the Mindset the disk drives are a separate unit and unlike the Mindset the MAD-1 can't operate without them because the enclosure also contains the PSU for the whole computer. The floppy drives are nothing special.. just SA-455 360k. Anyway, Sellam's msg about trades prompted me to reach out again. If you aren't familiar here is a link to a pic of one CHM has. https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X1620.99A Many thanks!! Brad Brad - The Tech Time Traveller brad(a)techtimetraveller.com

2 years

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Printers, etc available for sale

by Marvin Johnston

Does anyone still use the older dot matrix printers? The husband of a friend of mine passed away and I am helping her dispose of his classic computer stuff. If there is interest in them, I can put together a list of what she has (and I can see) in the six storage lockers :). The printers I saw today used the wide perforated paper. My memory is non existent after about 1 hour :). My current plan is to attend VCFMW in September, and I can probably bring stuff with me. The ones I remember are the Diablo 630 (?), Juki, and a number of others of similar vintage. Yes, he had half a dozen or so Kaypro and Osbourne computers in the first 18" or so of the storage unit plus one IBM compatible that I could see along with maybe six B&W monitors. There are also a number of bankers boxes filled with 5 1/4" and 3.5" floppy disks and period books. Marvin

2 years

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Re: Intel Developers' Insight CD-ROM collection archived anywhere?

by Kevin Bowling

Can someone upload the ISOs of what we do have to archive.org? I found http://intel-vintage-developer.eu5.org/ but I'd like to grab it without the free web host ads. On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 4:47 PM Maciej W. Rozycki via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > On Thu, 1 Oct 2020, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote: > > > > Sadly neither seems to be among the files I have copied. I could yet > > > check Intel Dec 1995 Data on Demand discs I happen to have, and do have > > > here, but they are cumbersome to handle as they use a proprietary format > > > requiring a DOS app to access, and yet more hassle to get anything > > > exported (assuming I can recall how I did that many years ago), so it'll > > > take a little. > > > > If you have some Intel "Data on Demand" CD-ROMs it would be nice if > > .ISO images of those could be captured and uploaded somewhere. Then > > leave it up to anyone interested to deal with extracting documents > > from them. > > Hmm, I'm not sure of the copyright status, even that those were available > free of charge. It would be good to have the stuff preserved though, so > I'll see if I can get some ack from Intel. I have good experience overall > with such enquiries. Ditto about the Insight CDs. > > > I found this document while looking online. It's not clear to me if > > that is a list of documents that are contained on the December 1995 > > "Data on Demand" CD-ROMs or if some of those are only available > > elsewhere. > > > > http://alt.ife.tugraz.at/datashts/intel/litguide.pdf > > This looks to me like a list of orderable hardcopy documents. I still > have a long line of those on a bookshelf. But indeed most if not all were > available on said CDs, and some were only there. > > Anyway, sorry to take so long, but such is life. I finally got to my set > of Insight CDs and guess what? First that I looked at was October 1996, > my oldest, and it does have what you look for: > > $ ls -la fbldr16*.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4619852 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1359076 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16a.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1253664 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16b.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 1076370 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16c.zip > -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 930808 Jul 8 1996 fbldr16d.zip > $ > > Do you still need it? I have lost the FTP site I used to host things on > and I can't afford the time to set up a new one right away. But I can > e-mail you this stuff offlist if your mailbox can swallow it. The choice > is either one big file, first in the listing above, or the other four, > which are the same contents, split, that I would send in a separate e-mail > each. I could split it further too, I know how it worked in the old days. > > By the look of it all the documentation included with FLASHBuilder is in > the form of MS Windows help files rather than PDF. > > Either way please let me know. > > Maciej

2 years

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Re: SCAMP at 61 (IBM Scientific Computer And Modular Processor) was Re: SCAMP at 50 (IBM 5100)

by Tom Stepleton

I have to assume that the SCAMP used in the IBM 5100 Portable Computer and relatives must have been a great deal smaller than the earlier machine. As such, a logical and unambiguous way to refer to it is "SCAMP Shrimpy." I hope this is helpful, --Tom

2 years

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SCAMP at 50 (IBM 5100)

by Steve Lewis

For anyone interested, I'm placing my SCAMP notes here! Had an incredibly great opportunity to learn more about it. https://voidstar.blog/scamp-a-review-50-years-later/

2 years

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Old Professional/350 software, any of this out there

by Chris Zach

Starting to go through my boxes of POS stuff. I know of course that 3.2 is out there (minus the Pro/Communications option which has a bad disk in the distro) however are these disks out there now? Pro/Venix 1.0 on floppies POS V2.0a on floppies POS version 1.5 (with test diskette, maintenance application, a thing called Pro/Pre labelled "Diskette system", system overview and instruction disks) POS V1.7 (I have that here somewhere) Pro/Basic Version 1.0 and 1.2 SPSS/X For Professional (this is a really interesting one, anyone heard of this?) If so let me know and I won't copy them. If not I'll go over to the mighty Deskpro/XE and start sucking the data off for archives.... Thanks! Chris (Hoping to find old drivers or scaffolding or something that will give me a hint into how DEC ported POS)

2 years

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May need help buying computer in Houston - I’m in CA

by Steven Stengel

I want to buy an old computer from a guy I don’t know in Houston (I’ll pay shipping to CA), but it’s a lot of money, and I don’t want to lose it - what are my options? Thanks- Steve.

2 years

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1-click exploits was Re: BEWARE: Phishing

by Todd Pisek

Be aware that clicking on a malicious url can result on malware or spyware being installed on your machine without any further action on your part. All browsers have vulnerabilities. The most famous of these was the older version of Pegasus by NSO back in the 2014-2016 timeframe. These so called 1-click exploits are well known to bad actors. It’s a continuous cat and mouse game between exploit writers and infosec. For the interested, look at this report regarding Apple and the “Trident” series of exploits from 2016. https://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/pegasus-exploits-technical-d… —-Todd P.S. Exploits have evolved considerably since Trident and now include 0-click exploits. See Google’s Project Zero for instance.

2 years

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Well, SPSS for RSX is sorta up.

by Chris Zach

Copied all the files onto my Gotek, it's SO EASY to just turn a dial to select a disk! Anyway, loaded all the files, but when I try to run them it says it's missing PROF77 Common. My guess is that's the same block as F77OTS, but how does one load a common block with a different name? I forgot.... Directory DU0:[SPSS] 28-JUL-2023 18:06 ANVTSK.TSK;1 173. C 28-JUL-2023 18:01 NPTTSK.TSK;1 189. C 28-JUL-2023 18:02 SRVTSK.TSK;1 167. C 28-JUL-2023 18:02 SPSTSK.TSK;2 576. C 28-JUL-2023 17:59 TTSTSK.TSK;2 116. C 28-JUL-2023 18:00 SPSS.INS;2 3. C 28-JUL-2023 18:00 RPTTSK.TSK;1 190. C 28-JUL-2023 18:02 SPSS.TSK;1 136. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SCATSK.TSK;1 117. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SPSS.MNU;1 7. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SPSS.HLP;1 124. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 PARTSK.TSK;1 130. C 28-JUL-2023 18:03 SPSS.MSG;1 18. C 28-JUL-2023 18:04 SPRTSK.TSK;1 98. C 28-JUL-2023 18:04 SPSS.ERR;1 69. C 28-JUL-2023 18:04 TEST1.LST;1 21. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 GSS77.SAV;1 123. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST2.LST;1 27. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST3.LST;1 21. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST1.CMD;1 1. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST2.CMD;1 2. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 TEST3.CMD;1 6. 28-JUL-2023 18:05 Total of 2314./2325. blocks in 22. files $ run spss INS -- Common block not loaded PROF77

2 years

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Cool program found for Pro/350

by Chris Zach

Over the weekend I picked up a Pro/350 from the System Source swap. The good news is I traded something of similar size for it, and more importantly I didn't bring anything else home :-) Anyway, it's a pretty basic system with 10mb ST412 drive, 128k memory on board, 256kb memory expansion, disk controller, floppy controller and RX50 (with the usual loose pad, glued back in), and a video card WITHOUT the extended bitmap option. Brought it home, pulled everything, checked the power supply (good), got the drive spinning, and since drives like this tend to be precious I sucked the data off it using a Gesswin emulator (best money I have spent). Sucked the data off with no errors, thus everything is preserved for eternity. I'll take a look at the drive and see about using a bit of watch oil on the shaft to lubricate the bearings and put this disk back into a "usable" category. Even better: Fired up and compiled xhomer on my Raspberry Pi CM3+, loaded the image, and sure enough: There is a POS 2.0 install on the disk, with a really neat app called "Prostar/300" Seems to be an office tool for real estate office, specifically farm management, investment, and amortization. Even better it looks like all the data was stored on Floppies (now long gone) so no PII issues. And there is a word processor built into the app along with the normal PROSE editor. I'll tool around with it for a bit, then put the disk image up on crystel.com. An interesting application, can be easily transferred to a real disk using a gesswin emulator or put it on xhomer. :-) Pretty nice application from 1986 vintage, I can see this being used in offices around the midwest. Chris

2 years

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F/S: Lego robot kits for IBM PC

by Evan Koblentz

Around the middle of the 1980s, Lego made a robotics system for 8-bit computers, including the Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, and IBM PC. The system includes a hardware interface (set #9750, "Interface A"), a card or cable (differs for each computer; the PC-ISA card is set #9771), and various electronic Lego bits (sensors, lights, motors, etc., the main set of which is #9700.) I recently acquired several of the PC-ISA version. I am selling these as a bundle: 1x-9750, 1x-9771, 2x-9700. The price is $400 + s/h from New Jersey. Full details about the sets are on my website, www.brickhacks.com. The site isn't finished and some links will not work, but the meat of it is all there. I'll also be posting how-to videos on YouTube (@TechnicallyEvan) but I can't promise when that will happen -- I'm very busy in real life. All of the manuals are on the Internet Archive, under the "vintage Lego robotics" collection. Interested buyers should send me a private message to evan(a)snarc.net.

2 years

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IBM 8" disk drives - anyone need?

by Steve Lewis

I have a pair of IBM 8" disk drives - they are from an 1980 IBM 5120 I simply won't have the time to give them the attention they deserve for many years. They seem mechanically ok (they spin) but I don't know much more about them, or how "universal" they might be as 8" floppy disk drives. I think I do have to cut them from the transformer they are connected to (couple thick red wires), but otherwise they have all the original power harness stuff as well. Thinking just cost of shipping plus rounded to nearest $10 or $100. They are about 20lbs (together, and I would like to keep them together - there is a pin/clip that is used to latch them together, but I do think they can be separated fairly easily). Message me if any interest. If you do need/want them for another 5120 project, I can probably include some adapter cards. -Steve

2 years

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ICL / Digico

by Christian Corti

So, I was trying to contact "Pete" at vintage-icl-computers.com several times during the last years. Obiously, the site and/or the person is dead, no reaction whatever. I'm hoping that someone on this list might be able to help me: I still have a Digico Micro 16V computer that, one day, I'd like to restore. On the ICL site above I can see that they have (had?) the service manual/schematics for the system, and I would really love to get a scan (or at least high resolution photos) of these. Does anyone here maybe have them or can provide me with some pointers? Oh BTW, software (e.g. papertape images) would be great, too :-) Christian

2 years

5
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IMSAI SIO 8080 Comm Program?

by Bill Degnan

I am looking for a basic or commercial IMSAI SIO 8080 Comm Program that uses SIO serial connector 2 for modem communications. Something I can start from a ROM monitor running from the console running through serial connector 1. My system is using the original 8080, I want to avoid the cp/m z80 route. Bill

2 years, 1 month

2
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xerox viewboard

by r.stricklin

Looking for information on how to set the jumpers/dip switches on the Xerox ViewBoard (AWPI Bounty) and ViewBoard II. Apparently there’s one or more hardware installation manuals for these boards, which were also sold as part of the “Network Services for PC” product, so the hardware installation manual for that would presumably also contain this information. Bitsavers has the Network Services for PC software installation manual, which mentions the separate hardware manual(s), but I haven’t yet been able to locate any copies of anything that describes the jumpers/switches. ok bear.

2 years, 1 month

4
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Can't access

by Murray McCullough

Dear sir; I can't access your site. Not sure why! It mat be due to the email address I employ. Many thanks, Murray 🙂

2 years, 1 month

3
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Re: Death of Mitnick

by John Foust

At 02:05 AM 7/20/2023, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote: >On Wed, Jul 19, 2023, 8:35 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >wrote: >> Too bad, but on the other hand, John Draper turned 80 this year. >> Probably a better role model. >> >> --Chuck > >Oh, god, no. Chuck's only saying that because he wasn't invited to "work out." - John

2 years, 1 month

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Death of Mitnick

by Murray McCullough

Maybe this note is off topic but I don't think so: The death of Kevin Mitnick. His book "Ghost in the Wire" is a classic. Too bad he was a criminal! Murray 🙂

2 years, 1 month

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VT100: Datasheet for Intel 8228

by Rob Jarratt

Hello, I have a non-functioning VT100. I think I may have isolated the problem to an Intel 8228 chip (or 88228, the schematic says 8228, the part is marked 88228C). Certainly, the part gets a bit hot and it doesn't seem to be outputting anything on the I/O W pin (pin 27) despite activity on STSTB (pin 1), DBIN (pin 4) and WR (Pin 3). There is no activity on the HLDA input though, but I am not sure if that is required because I think the firmware is just trying to send its status to the keyboard LEDs. I can find a brief datasheet for the 8228 but it doesn't tell me the logic for producing the I/O W signal, so I am not sure if it is behaving as it should. Does anyone have more comprehensive information on how the 8228 is supposed to work? I have dumped the ROMs and been able to capture the ROM reads and they match the disassembled code, so I think the 8080 CPU itself is working. Thanks Rob

2 years, 1 month

3
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VCF and System Source Computer Museum swap meet this weekend

by Mark G Thomas

Hi, I am curious if anyone here might be planning on attending. https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/events/3000/ The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer repair workshop on Saturday July 22nd and Sunday July 23rd 2023 ... Mark -- Mark G. Thomas <Mark(a)Misty.com>, KC3DRE

2 years, 1 month

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OLD ftp.compaq.com Mirror?

by Ali

Hello All, I am wondering if anyone has a private or knows of a mirror for ftp.compaq.com that is older than 2014? All the ones I have found online, including the file at archive.org, are from 2014. By then a number of files and directories had been purged e.g. "/pub/supportinformation/techpubs" and "softlib1". I am looking for some old documentation and firmware for Compaq switches and Tape Libraries but if anyone has a full set of files I am happy to add them to a mirror. TIA! -Ali

2 years, 1 month

5
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Restoring Ultrix-32m 1.2 Floppies

by Henry Bent

Hi all, I just noticed that images of a full RX50 floppy set for Ultrix-32m 1.2 was posted on Bitsavers ( http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/bits/DEC/vax/ultrix/1.2/ULTRIX-32M_V1.2_… ). I am having difficulty parsing these images into a usable raw format for SIMH. As a reference, TUHS has a set of 1.0 floppies ( https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/DEC/Ultrix-32M/ ) that are usable for installation purposes. (You can ignore the 1.2 floppies in that archive, they aren't actually a full set). The first disk of that installer, 32m-1.0-bin/01, has a bootloader that starts at byte zero as we would expect. This should be approximately equivalent to disk 1 in the Bitsavers set. Oddly though, in the "raw" dump the bootloader doesn't start until 0x1400, and a number of the other disks I looked at appear to have odd holes/zeroes in them. IMD format dumps of the 1.2 disks are provided but when I converted the IMD format to a raw image I got the same issue. I'm almost thoroughly unfamiliar with IMD - is there some obvious extraction/conversion option that I am missing here? Were these disks actually imaged correctly? I would appreciate any suggestions. -Henry

2 years, 1 month

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How to archive floppies

by Warner Losh

OK. I have about 500 DEC Ranibow floppy images that I've ripped over the years. I also have a number of .td0 images as well as other oddballs. Other than Lotus 123 needing to have funky sectors on one of its bigger tracks for copy protection, I think having the raw images suffice. I have some disks that I have multiple copies of (MS-DOS, CP/M, Winchester Utilities, DEC Rainbow diagnostics etc).I have a few copies of some software packages. I have a few disks that are clearly personal. And some of the variations of MS-DOS have different patches applied by various install programs (or debug scripts published in different trade rags of the time). And at least one has a special driver installed that overwrites the DEC Winchester for things like Univation). So, what I'd like to do is to is somehow organize all this. I wrote some software to extract files from the filesystem.So I'd like to have a separate copy of the expanded files. Lots of moving parts for 40-year-old floppies. I'm struggling with how to organize all this, how to keep track of this, and how to allow others to contribute their disk images and allow things to be studied and run. I'd like to keep the raw images (to mine them for drivers like the univation one I discovered). I'd like to keep the busted apart files to access them more easily, etc. Is there some book, website, paper, etc that I can use to to help me organize all this so I can share it with others? Is this even the right place to ask? There's got to be several people that have solved this issue before.... Warner

2 years, 1 month

3
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10 types of people

by Paul Koning

Seen on the GCC bugzilla: "actually, there are 10 types of people: those who understand ternary, those who dont, and those who thought this was going to be a binary joke" :-) paul

2 years, 1 month

3
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Don Lancaster has passed away at 83

by Sellam Abraham

Don Lancaster passed away on June 7. https://gilaherald.com/obituary-for-don-lancaster/ I hope his website is well preserved: https://tinaja.com/ Sellam

2 years, 1 month

10
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Shot In the Dark: Compaq System Manager Facility

by Ali

Really long shot, and I have asked here before without much luck, but anyone have a copy of the Compaq System Manager Facility 1.10 or 1.11 (or any version for that matter). This would have been released in 1994/95 time frame and is necessary for the use of the Compaq Server Manager/R EISA board. This is a very early EISA RILO board for the System Pro and Proliant line of servers. Please note this is not the same as the System Management Agents nor the Insight Manager. TIA! -Ali

2 years, 1 month

2
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WTB XVR-4000

by silcreval

Hi everyone, I recently dug out my V880 and all seems to be working brilliantly. I've always liked these machines and it would be nice to upgrade this to the V880z spec, ie by adding the mighty XVR-4000 graphics module. I know the XVR-4000 is a bit of a mixed bag, but would be fun to play around with this and also who can not be impressed with the shear size of the module. Must be one of the biggest Sun graphics 'cards'? Does anyone have one of these boards they would be willing to part with. Happy to pay a reasonable amount as I know these are not easy to find. PM me if you have anything. Ian.

2 years, 1 month

2
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IBM 1410 FPGA Status

by Jay Jaeger

Over the past couple of months I have been working on my FPGA implementation of the IBM 1410 1960's era pre System/360 system again. I am pleased to share that the CPU now passes a significant diagnostic, CU01, which tests almost all of the instructions, and also tests I/O with overlap and the priority feature (interrupts). Also, it runs at generally the same speed as the original machine (comparing the IBM estimates for 1000 passes), using the same logic as the original machine (though no doubt optimized by the process of taking in VHDL logic statements and turning combinatorial logic into lookup tables (LUTs), and some additions of "D" flip flops to avoid race conditions in latches and logic loops.) (The speed is the same because its "oscillator" - crystal controlled in the original - is now a clock divider/counter off of the FPGA chip clock.) For more details, see https://www.computercollection.net/index.php/ibm-1410-fpga-implementation/ Mostly the ALD (Automated Logic Diagram) data capture seems to have been very accurate. I really only had to do four things this year to get it to this point: - Make the necessary logic gate deletions / changes for configuration option S40/$40 - 40K of core - Add the ability to transfer a core image from the PC support program to the FPGA. - Fix some issues in the Assembly Channel because while almost all of the ALDs are for a 1410 with the Accelerator feature, several pages of the very important Assembly channel were for the base 1410 model. - Deal with a race condition during overlapped I/O These are generally discussed in individual blog posts off the above link. I really was quite happily surprised that when capturing the data on over two hundred ALDs with over 10,000 logic gates, over 4,200 individual unique signals, more than 12,000 signal names on individual ALDs, and more than 32,000 interconnections that there were not a lot more problems than these. (I may run into some as yet undiscovered errors involving the channels as I add I/O devices, though). I suppose that there were not more problems because for most of the individual sheets and in many cases groups of sheets I wrote VHDL test benches using the Intermediate Logic Diagrams (ILDs) as a guide, and of course took considerable care during the data entry process from the ALDs, checking connection counts on each logic block, for example. The last post ("Off to the Races") on the aforementioned web page also discusses the next expected steps: some more work on the PC/Console support program, more diagnostic tests, other support program enhancements, and figuring out how to go about I/O, especially since I don't have ALDs for the 1414 I/O Synchronizers. But I no longer have any doubts about the viability of this process, so long as the FPGA logic clock is somewhere around 10x the logic clock of the simulated machine. (I expect to try and "push it" by speeding up the 1410 logic clock to see at what ratio of the FPGA clock to the CPU clock things break down, as well). JRJ

2 years, 1 month

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Talking PDP11

by Douglas Taylor

I have a PDP-11/53 and have just started playing with an AAV11-C D/A board. It is a 4 channel D/A convertor with 12 bit resolution. Can it be used to play an audio bit stream? Here is simple code used to see if the thing was actually working: .title AAV11 D/A test ; .asect dbr0 = 170440 .=1000 start: mov #7777,r0 4096 value to R0 mov #dbr0,r1 first D/A buffer out loop: mov r0,(r1) transfer value in r0 to D/A out dec r0 subtract 1 from D/A value bne loop br start loop back to start I was surprised to see that it took ~34 ms to run through all the numbers from 0-7777, that is about 34 Hz. The manual says the 'settling time' is 6 microseconds. Is this fast enough for audio? How would you convert a modern audio file into 12 bit integers? Doug

2 years, 1 month

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A from-scratch PDP 11 OS - ruos

by Alan Kirby

A friend suggested that some in this group may have an interest in this. ruos stands for Retro Useless Operating System ruos is an OS for the long-obsolete PDP11/70 from Digital Equipment Corporation. ruos runs on the simh simulator for that machine. It was written completely from scratch in C and assembler. On a modern machine, the kernel and user code builds in a few seconds. Overview: It can run something less than 64 processes simultaneously with one user on the console and others on other serial ports. Equal priority CPU-bound tasks share the CPU. The user program API includes a number of stdio-like C functions ruos was built using the gcc toolchain for the PDP11 (Thanks for those toolchain bug fixes Paul Koning!) Each user process is given exactly 64kB for code, data, heap, and stack and is (mostly) isolated from other processes Users access the OS using a very simple unix-like shell for command execution with pipes allowed It does not have its own file system but uses a proxy for file IO. The proxy code (Python 3) is included. Communication between the OS and the proxy is via UDP/IPv4/Ethernet. Familiar user binaries include: cat, ps, echo, grep. Device status is provided by ds If a user tries to run a program that is not native to ruos, an attempt is made to run it on the proxy. Using this mechanism, users can edit files or build new programs (assuming the gcc toolchain is installed on the proxy and the proxy is on the same machine as simh). It is accessible here: https://ajco...@bitbucket.org/ajcorbeil/ruos.git <https://ajcorbeil@bitbucket.org/ajcorbeil/ruos.git> Regards, Alan Kirby

2 years, 1 month

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BEWARE: Phishing

by Chuck Guzis

Just got the following message in the account that I use to receive cctalk email: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello cclist, The passwогd to your mailbox (cclist(a)sydex.com) expires in 24 hrs time. Following this prompt, your webmail will log you out and generate a new passwогd. Alternatively, you can retain and continue using your cuггent passwогd, by using the user secured button below; Keep Cuггent Passwогd (link goes to cloudflare-ipfs.com) This email is generated by sydex.com's mail server for cclist(a)sydex.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FYI Chuck

2 years, 1 month

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Problems with getting your newslatter

by Murray McCullough

Hello sir, I used to get your newsletter but no longer...I understand there are problems... I would be most interested in getting your newsletter again. Many thanks, Murray 🙂

2 years, 1 month

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OT: Ham Radio

by Bill Gunshannon

I know this is off topic, but I think there are a number of hams here. Looking to get back into it but have some questions. Now that the a**holes have completely trashed all the USENET ham radio groups where do hams go for the kinds of discussions that used to be there? bill

2 years, 1 month

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FOSBIC Compiler

by Veit, Holger

Hi all, maybe someone here is interested in the FOSBIC (FORTRAN Simulated BASIC Interpretive Compiler) system. Background: This was developed, oder rather ported from UWBIC (University of Washington, Prog. W.H. Sharpe) in the mid 70s, by Prof Weber et al. at the German University of Gießen, for the purpose of teaching BASIC on their CDC3300 batch system. It is written in FORTRAN IV, and knows most of Dartmouth BASIC, including MAT statements and basic sequential/ISAM file handling. I have ported that, with the help to GNU gfortran, to modern Windows (mingw/cygwin) and Linux, so anyone may play with it. It is still a batch system, i.e. on has to provide the BASIC program as a file (formerly it had to be a card deck), and feed it into the program through stdin, as in "./fosbic < hello.bas | ./asa" The code with many examples is available at https://github.com/hveit01/FOSBIC, and has also found its way to bitsavers.org/pdf/uni-giessen. -- Regards Holger

2 years, 1 month

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1974 No Name Terminal

by brad＠techtimetraveller.com

Hi there - not sure how much overlap there is with vcfed's forum, but thought I would reach out here in case. I have a terminal from 1974 (based on date codes I've found on the motherboard). I'm unable to determine manufacturer and that would be handy for diagnostic purposes. The terminal casing is made out of foam, and although there are some serial numbers stamped around, nothing really lines up. The fans inside have zero dust or dirt, so I'm thinking this may not have seen much use, or may be a prototype or pilot for something. It does have RS232 capability. Interestingly the screen is set down below the keyboard so that only half of it is visible. My main issue right now is the PSU - I am trying to determine if I'm safe to attempt powering up the board (the PSU so far seems to be ok, although some voltages on a couple of pins are mysterious). Anyway, on the extremely off chance anyone has ever seen one of these or something like it.. any tips would be appreciated. If I can find a manual I'll feel a lot safer about turning it on. Some pics here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-2uEFbi3OKBYr06y6yHnygDiLMtw2Qkj?usp =sharing Brad brad(a)techtimetraveller.com

2 years, 1 month

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VCF Southwest 2023 some highlights

by Steve Lewis

VCF SW was this past weekend near Dallas, Texas. Here are some highlights from my perspective. https://voidstar.blog/vcf-southwest-2023/ Most photos you can click to enlarge (Edge has bugs with WordPress, you may need to scroll up/down a little bit to get the click thing working) Cheers, Steve

2 years, 1 month

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Is the list broken again?

by Bill Gunshannon

I doubt this will go thru either but other attempts to send to the list are now getting rejected as SPAM. Doesn't the list check addresses to see if the poster is a member? bill

2 years, 1 month

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Re: DEC VT180 "Robin" Maintenance Prints?

by Robert Armstrong

>Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: >Have you checked here: http://9track.net/roms/ ... Hey, thank you! I didn't know about this particular collection, and he does have the ROM dumps for the VT180 Z80 board. I'd still like to find a schematic, though! Thanks again, Bob

2 years, 1 month

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DEC VT180 "Robin" Maintenance Prints?

by Robert Armstrong

Does anybody have the maintenance prints for the DEC VT180? The VT180, aka "Robin" was DEC's CP/M machine in a VT100 chassis. The terminal part is just a standard VT100 and maintenance prints for that are easy to find, but I need a schematic for the actual Z80 CP/M Robin option card. Can't seem to find that anywhere. Bitsavers and Manx have the technical manual which has some information (although it wastes way too many pages explaining how a VT100 works!) but no actual schematics. On the same topic, has anybody dumped the ROMs for this machine? Again, not the VT100 ROMs, but the CP/M boot/POST ROMs that are on the VT180 Z80 card. Thanks, Bob

2 years, 1 month

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KIM-1 debug board RAM test: *zero* flashes

by Cameron Kaiser

I assembled Dwight Elvey's KIM-1 debug board (thank you, Gary!) and have now certified two of my KIMs with it, so I'm very confident the harness operates properly. Unfortunately, the one I *want* to repair, my original KIM-1, won't start up at all after replacing the 2102 RAM I was pretty sure was bad. I checked my soldering and found a couple spots without continuity that should according to the schematic, but fixing those didn't fix it. I also buzzed out the socket and found no obvious shorts, and a second 2102 equivalent from a second manufacturer has the same symptoms. I connected the debug harness and test 0, the initial "dead board" test, does show CPU accesses on the red LED and slowly flashes the green LED, so the CPU at least is alive and can access the test EPROM. However, test 1, the RAM test, should show long flashes of the green LED if RAM is bad. I was prepared to see all long flashes which might implicate the buffers or address decoder, but instead it won't blink the LED at all in that or any of the other tests. The red LED remains lit and appropriately extinguishes when the RS button is down. Again, the board works correctly and fully certifies the other two KIMs. What would cause it to hang (?) in the RAM test on the defective one? -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com -- Roger Waters to moving crew: "Hey! Careful with those racks, Eugene!" ------

2 years, 1 month

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Irix 5.3 ntpdate

by Jonathan Katz

Hi everyone! I'm having a horrible time trying to find ntpdate pre-compiled for Irix 5.3 anywhere. Does anyone have a package/tardist? -- -Jon +44 7792 149029

2 years, 1 month

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IBM 5120/5110-3 casual notes / 8" disks question

by Steve Lewis

I finally got an IBM 5120 earlier this month, to complement the 5100 and 5110 that I already have. It had a few issues, but I did manage to get it to "boot" to BASIC. I put together a few notes about it here. Nothing too exciting, but two things I've learned: (1) the 5120 does actually still have the video REVERSE feature. (2) the 5120 has both an external (red power switch) and internal power switch (internal one is at rear below disk drives). Notes here: https://voidstar.blog/ibm-5120-aka-ibm-5110-3/ IBM 5120 (aka IBM 5110-3) — voidstar <https://voidstar.blog/ibm-5120-aka-ibm-5110-3/> My only question is: how "universal" are 8" disk? This 5120 only came with a single IBM 8" Diagnostics disk. It looks to be in fine condition, but I've no idea about the data. So far I haven't been able to read it - it's probably more hardware/drive issues, I'm still investigating. But I'm wondering if I had other 8" disks (3M SS/SD), should I be able to format/MARK them? I've used old tape decks and 5.25" drives - but 8" drives is all new territory for me. Also, I'll be talking about the 5100/5110 at VCF next Sunday on the 25th of this month, June.

2 years, 1 month

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Found the DSM orange manual

by Chris Zach

While looking for my RSX11 DECNET manual (because the online version doesn't have any examples of commands which is why you look in the manual in the first place) I found a copy of the DSM binder AA-K676B-TK and ilk. Is this online or does anyone else have it? CZ

2 years, 1 month

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Any RSX-11 fans able to identify file types?

by Chuck Guzis

I've got a few backup sets (potentially incomplete) done on MicroRSX that were created with BRU on RX50 media. I've cranked out some code to itemize the contents, but the file types are a mystery. I suppose that one has to live in that world to know (e.g. MSL) The sets appear to be (parts) of an incremental backup scheme; I think I've got at least one copy of the complete set. Would anyone be willing to have a look at the (ASCII) file catalog and suggest the application that may have created the files? Email me offlist if interested. --Chuck

2 years, 1 month

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